Sibylline's (Lucy's) Quarterly Report 2022: To Year's End

For August round up and photo go to >3 sibylline:
For September Round-Up go to >32 sibylline:
For October Round-Up go to >61 sibylline:
For November current reading go to >80 sibylline:

This was August


Me and Miss Po on a hike on my birthday (last day of July)

Currently Reading in August
♬♬

✔Children of Earth and Sky Guy Gavriel Kay fantasy
new Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer nf botany/spirit
♬ The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (Flavia 8) Alan Bradley mys
♬ A Treacherous Curse Deanna Raybourn hist mys

Read in August
74. newish The City of Brass S.A. Chakraborty fantasy ****
75. new Kingdom of Copper S.A. Chakraborty fantasy ****
76. ♬ Summers at Castle Auburn Sharon Shinn YA fantasy ****
77. RR ♬ The Black Moth Georgette Heyer ***1/2
78.new Travel Light with The Varangs Saga Naomi Mitchison fantasy
DNF new The Unpossessed Tess Schlesinger 20th fic
(My comments for the above books can be found in the previous thread)
79. new The Empire of Gold S.A. Chakraborty fantasy ****
80. ♬ A Curious Beginning Deanna Raybourn hist mys ***1/2
81. ✔ A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martinesp/op *****
82. ♬ A Perilous Undertaking Deanna Raybourn hist mys ****
83. new A Prayer for the Crown Shy Becky Chambers sf *****
84. new Foster Claire Keegan fiction irish, novella

Read in August
74. newish The City of Brass S.A. Chakraborty fantasy ****
75. new Kingdom of Copper S.A. Chakraborty fantasy ****
76. ♬ Summers at Castle Auburn Sharon Shinn YA fantasy ****
77. RR ♬ The Black Moth Georgette Heyer ***1/2
78.new Travel Light with The Varangs Saga Naomi Mitchison fantasy
DNF new The Unpossessed Tess Schlesinger 20th fic
(My comments for the above books can be found in the previous thread)
79. new The Empire of Gold S.A. Chakraborty fantasy ****
80. ♬ A Curious Beginning Deanna Raybourn hist mys ***1/2
81. ✔ A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martinesp/op *****
82. ♬ A Perilous Undertaking Deanna Raybourn hist mys ****
83. new A Prayer for the Crown Shy Becky Chambers sf *****
84. new Foster Claire Keegan fiction irish, novella

And probably maybe this one too.

And one more for good measure

79. fantasy ****1/2 (for the whole trilogy)
The Empire of Gold S. A. Chakraborty

It's been a pleasure to experience Chakraborty settling into the story, the setting and the characters. Also, as a person from a different culture, to be on the inside, of a different world entirely (yet, oh so very human). I was especially enthralled with Ali, who felt fully realized, and his gradual expansion and metamorphosis into maturity--done without sacrificing an essential part of who he is, was a thrill for me, but that is not to say that Dara and Nahri were lesser -- what works for me might be different than what works for you. To me Dara was, perhaps, unbelievably naive and thoughtless, but I know there are people like that, and Nahri stood at the opposite extreme, but fantasy allows (even needs) for (some) characters to be less rounded than in 'realistic' fiction (duh.) The fight over the city of the daevas and djinns comes to a head finally and the story twists and turns while heads roll. Retribution plays a huge role -- no group is innocent and no group will, without strong guidance, ever give up revenging past wrongs. Chakraborty is determined to show the way and I commend her for it, almost the hardest thing for groups of people to do, allow groups of other colors, faiths, locales and so on as much 'humanity' as they considers themselves to possess. Kudos! ****1/2

Me again... caught the previous thread last night and hadn't realized you started a new one just today! I'm liking your recent reads and will hope to get Kaheman's from our PL.

Happy new one, Lucy. Love the photo of you and Miss Po. I thought of you two the other day when a guy on a motorcycle with a Corgi looking over his shoulder from a backpack (and, I swear, smiling) passed me on the road the other day. Corgi was wearing googles and looked ever so happy.

Happy new thread, Lucy!

Happy new one!

Happy new thread Lucy!

>7 SandyAMcPherson: Hi Sandy!

Happy New Thread, Lucy!

Happy new thread, Lucy.

>1 sibylline: You look like you are trying to figure out which way to go next! x

>6 sibylline: I already have the first in the trilogy in the BlackHole. One of these days I might actually get to it.

Happy new thread, Lucy! I hope you have a super Saturday!

Happy new thread!

Happy New Thread, Lucy, and Happy Reading! And especially - Happy Telling Us about Your Reading!

80. ♬ hist mys ****
A Curious Beginning Deanna Raybourn

Perhaps here, I read a comment/review that as absurd as the story line is, best not to get hung up but to go with the flow! Nothing could be truer. Mid-1880's Veronica Speedwell (like naming someone Daisy Daisy, btw) is in her early 20's and the last of her childhood foster mothers (sisters) have died and she is now on her own. The local vicar and wife urge her to marry a local farmer with six children and she firmly (understatement) refuses. She is an independent woman, a lepidopterist who is making her own way financially and so she leaves the little village--only, someone has, during the funeral ransacked the tiny cottage and even tries to abduct her and a mysterious foreign gentleman helps her and. . . oh, and there is a very dark and handsome be-earringed and scarred dude . . . and it soon becomes apparent there is a mystery swirling around her origins. If plausibility is your thing, don't bother, otherwise jump in! I listened and the reader was sometimes a bit strident but actually perfect for who Veronica is. ****

>17 sibylline: Mornin' Lucy. I can't decide if I'm tempted or turned off --

>18 RebaRelishesReading: You could try listening to a few pages on Audible? I found it very engaging in some fundamental 'storytelling' way.

>19 sibylline: I have two audible credits available so I might do that.

>6 sibylline: Hi Lucy! I read the Daevabad books sometime in the last couple of years and quite enjoyed them too. I found Dara's PoV annoying because of his hopeless naivety mixed with how old he is, but it didn't detract much from the books. I'm looking forward to seeing what she writes next.

>21 kgodey: I totally agree with you about Dara!

Success, took your advice and hied myself to the local indie bookshop and bought Thinking fast and slow. Have to finish Crossings first, though. That's a slow journey too. I read only a couple chapters every night and then have to think about the stories Walt H. tells.

>23 SandyAMcPherson: So glad you found a copy!

80. sp/op *****
A Psalm For the Wild Built Becky Chambers

A young monk on a faraway habitable moon in a faraway future is restless. He decides to leave his work at the monastery and go caravanning and offering tea to those who need encouragement, solace, comfort. Off he goes. The moon experienced a kind of cataclysm several hundred years prior when all the AI type robots, who were doing all the work, so that humans were unhappy with nothing to do (while also wrecking their environment) became fully aware. It was agreed by all that the humans and the robots would separate and half the planet would be returned to the wild and the robots, who wanted nothing more than to be free to observe would live there. The humans, having enough technology, would find a new, less harmful, way to live. The young monk, Dex, becomes restless after a few years of the tea therapy and develops a craving to hear crickets, only to be found in certain places in the wild. So he goes off the map. A robot turns up -- and I can't say much more without spoiling. I do need to say that the thoughtfulness of the last fifty or so pages was wonderful, where the issue of 'purpose' is examined and discussed, took this very short novel to another level entirely. *****

I put down a book in order to read this as my spousal unit brought it home from the library where we are on vacation on the Cape and it is due Friday! Took me only the one day.

>25 sibylline: I just re-read that before getting to A Prayer for the Crown Shy and loved it all over again. It is such a delightful book.

81. sp/op *****
A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine

New category for me (that is I have read books that fit this category, just hadn't learned the name!): Diplomatic space opera. Mahit Dzmare of the Stationers is sent as Ambassador to the heart of the Teix . . . caan Empire (yah, unspellable) to replace the former ambassador only find that he has died. Stationers have learned a way to preserve the memories of people and place them (through a tiny device in the brainstem) and anyone considered worthy will be 'passed on' in this way. It is the consciousness, yes, of that person, but a kind of grafting occurs to make a combined person--carefully chosen for compatibility, involving a lot of psycholtherapy etc. Normally. Mahit has five years worth, fifteen years previous, of the now dead Ambassador she is replacing. As well she inherits a very complex situation because the current emperor is dying and others are jockeying for his post. Her brief is to preserve the independence of the Stationers-a tough assignment given the Empire's proclivity to annex anything and anyone. Her assigned liaison officer turns out to be a great match and together they figure out, with another friend, how to navigate a mine field. Well written, great characters, super story line. All around excellent read! Looking forward to book 2! *****

82. ♬ hist mys ****
A Perilous Undertaking Deanna Raybourn

Veronica and Stoker are summoned to Special Branch and given what would seem an impossible task -- to find the real murderer of a young artist, Artemisia, violently killed in the bedroom of her host at a weekend country house party. He has been condemned to be hung in a week. That she was his mistress and was several months pregnant and that he clearly adored her but has decided to die rather than betray has caused Princess Louise (one of Victoria's daughters) to seek someone to try to find out what really happened, who he is covering up for. She is adamant that he is innocent, but won't reveal why. So they get to work -- uncovering some juicy pockets of mid-Victorian decadence along the way. Raybourn finds ways too to drive the reader bonkers as Stoker and Veronica dance around one another, however, I came away from this second offering with the feeling that they are wise to take their time. Both have difficult histories that can't be unraveled or shared quickly. Here the plot is a vehicle for character development, I had decided who 'did it' early one, but Raybourn did quite well in making me wonder exactly how for much longer. Lots of fun! ****

83. sf *****
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy Becky Chambers

Once in a while a book or books will come along that offer you an opportunity to shift your thinking--if you allow, if you don't come up with a dozen rationales so that you don't have to. Chambers is offering this with both the first Monk & Robot which addresses the issue of the human obsession with 'purpose' in a carefully oblique and unthreatening way (firmly pointing out that the rest of the universe does not have this problem) and now, in the second, with the question, essentially, of 'what is a relationship?' again gently but firmly exploding the usual notions. Chambers has created a society that is very close to being a utopia and that is where many readers will get off the (train, truck, boat) saying that there is no way that collectively humans would have either let the robots go free or would have decided to live so differently and that individually there are always people who are just plain dangerous, hungry for power or into violence who would disobey the decisions made by others. We do live in such a time now where violence is, by many, celebrated for irrational reasons and even more bizarrely condoning those with naked hunger for power and control to make a run fort it -- ignoring the will of the majority or even common sense. Which makes it all the harder to take Chamber's gentle tales as seriously. And yet. Perhaps these stories are an antidote? In a way she creates this world in order to make space to consider the core essentials: purpose, relationship while showing a glimpse of how we, homo sapiens, might move on. But no, she hasn't addressed the dark side. Perhaps she will when she is ready. Perhaps not. Which would be ok with me. *****

84. fiction irish, novella ****1/2
Foster Claire Keegan

What you have here is a perfectly shaped and written novella around the theme of loss and renewal -- how intertwined the two are such that you cannot have one without the other. The setting is (more or less contemporary) rural Wexford in the south of Ireland, two families, two sisters married to very different men and in very different circumstances. In one family an irresponsible father and overwhelmed mother, in the other two caring, good people, who have no child and I can't say more without spoiling -- the reader will get the situation long before the first person narrator does; the oldest child of the first family, who is sent to the second while the mother has what is at least her sixth and maybe seventh child. The couple with no child embrace the girl (who is ten? 11? 12? on the edge of puberty but not quite there) and care for her in a way she has never experienced and blossoms under. A sub-theme then, you could say, is that even from as short an experience as this one was (a few months of summer) the girl's life will be changed forever as she will know that other ways of being exist outside of the one she took for granted in her own birth family. It seems likely she will revisit her uncle and aunt frequently and will regard them as her 'true' parents. The writing--the challenge of a first person child narrator--Keegan succeeds while sacrificing nothing of description and development. ****1/2

An aside: The copy I picked up in a used book store in Ennis last April was scribbled in (shoulda looked more carefully) by a young lass who dotted her i's with round circles, clearly writing down what the teacher said as they went through. (Is there a boy alive who has ever done that?) At first I was annoyed but then I decided it was a propos, her own comments, parroting the teacher were insightful and yet the spelling! Some words were clearly not any she was familiar with.

What a vacation you are having!!!!!
I want them all except maybe the Raybourn, and I'm pretty sure I have one of hers and *Psalm*, which I happily got when offered by Tor.

September Round-Up and Photo

Turkeys everywhere!

Currently Reading in September
♬♬

Lib The Very Best of Kate Elliott Kate Elliott fantasy
new (BBG) The Map of Knowledge Violet Moller history
new This Is Happiness Niall Williams contemp
♬ The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (Flavia 8) Alan Bradley mys

85. ♬ A Treacherous Curse Deanna Raybourn hist mys ***1/2
86. ✔Children of Earth and Sky Guy Gavriel Kay fantasy ****1/2
87. new Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer nf botany/spirit *****
88. ♬ A Dangerous Collaboration Deanna Raybourn hist mys ***1/2
89. newA Brightness Long Ago Guy Gavriel Kay fantasy ****
90. ♬ A Murderous Relation Deanna Raybourn ***1/2
91. new All the Seas of the World Guy Gavriel Kay fantasy ****1/2
92. new The Oak Papers James Canton nat hist ***1/2
93. ✔An Unquiet Mind Kay Redfield Jamison psychology bipolar *****
94. ♬ An Unexpected Peril Deanna Raybourn ****

♬

85. A Treacherous Curse Deanna Raybourn hist mys

Veronica and Stoker get involved in solving a missing persons case, but it turns out to be VERY close to home for Stoker, as the missing person is a former close friend and the man who absconded with his first wife, Caroline. They've been working with a Baronet Egyptologist, but left hurriedly and came back to England, where De Morgan, the husband, simply disappeared room and all from the hotel in Dover. At last we learn more about that unholy mess. We are tantalized once more too, by a close missed encounter between Veronica and a very close relative. And, of course, endure the usual steam produced between Veronica and Stoker. Talk about the eruption of Krakatoa! How Raybourn will manage when they finally give in is beyond my imagining. The plots are ridiculous but the characters, descriptions, dialogue are all unalloyed entertainment.****

>33 sibylline: Eager to see what this one does for you, Lucy.

Happy Fall.

>34 richardderus: Finally got to this Richard. Happy autumn to you too -- where I am you can feel the change waiting in the wings.

86. fantasy ****1/2
Children of Earth and Sky Guy Gavriel Kay

A return to an historically sideways Earth Kay created in Sailing to Sarantium--but now centuries beyond the time written but a mere twenty-five years after the Sarantium Empire fell to the Asharites, desert folk from the eastern lands who worship the night sky (as opposed to the Jaddites in the West who worship the sun). A very early medievalish time, particularly as regards warfare--(archers, swords but also cannon and some form of guns, mainly of the unreliable blunderbuss) of rickety Empires and flourishing merchant city states at the edges of Empires, of wild lands full of bandits and rebels refusing to submit to the new rulers. The Khalif of the Asharites wants a portrait painted of himself by a westerner and he requests that an artist be sent from Seressa, the richest of the merchant city states and from that a series of events and encounters, chance and, perhaps, not chance are set in motion that will determine the course of history for decades to come in the greater region of two battling empires. The main characters, most of them, meet on the sea voyage from one city state to another, Pero Villani, the artist, on his way to Asharias to paint the khalif, Leonora a young woman released from a convent by the merchants to spy on their rival merchant city across the (not Adriatic) in Dubrava, Marin Djivo, a Dubravan merchant in charge. They are attacked by plunderers, folk from the city of Senjan, independent but lawless. By the end of this encounter, one of the pirates, Danica Gradek, chooses to stay on board the merchant ship (spoiler if I tell). The characters make the book, and there is one other major character, but I won't mention him, you'll find out. There is a hint of what I hesitate to call magic--destiny, perhaps? I hugely enjoyed the whole and look forward to more novels set in this Earth, ours but not ours, Kay can weave a tale. ****1/2

87. botany, ecology, native american spirituality *****
Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer

A ten pages a day-er with much to absorb and ponder. My comments are going to take time to put together--but the gist is that this is a necessary book. Kimmerer, herself a botanist, trained in the scientific method, has thought long and hard about how this method, when left 'spiritless' leads humans into (insanely) irresponsible (atom bomb, anyone?) and destructive and disastrous 'windigo' outcomes. She demonstrates this necessity in her writing, shifting comfortably back and forth between the personal and the 'objective'. There is so much about the 'scientific method' that needs reexamining and restructuring -- it is the bedrock of the factory model, the current public school model, the work model for human beings -- mechanistic and heartless and destructive. And yet, the method if used wisely can also yield, literally, miracles. There is much to delight and surprise along with the sad and ugly realities of how humans exploit the earth and each other. Many positives here -- one lovely essay about sweetgrass that combines the method with the spirit and demonstrates how human 'interference' can be undertaken with positive outcomes as well. Just read it. *****

88. ♬ hist mys ***1/2
A Dangerous Collaboration Deanna Raybourn

Stoker's brother, the Viscount invites Veronica to accompany him to a little island off the Cornish coast where the only glass-wing butterflies still exist in the British Isles (without the tiny scales that give butterflies color). Once they get there it becomes apparent that much more is afoot. Three years ago on the day of his wedding the bride of the island's 'lord of the castle' (real castle, no title) Malcom Rommely/Romilly (sp? I listened, no idea) disappeared. He has invited a small group because he is determined that with help he can figure out what happened to her. Veronica and Stoker are still tormenting one another, and Stoker, of course, invites himself along because he cannot bear to leave her alone in the hands of his brother. Things get deathly exciting, forcing Veronica and Stoker to reassess . . . The delayed gratification aspect is becoming both hilarious and hysterical for the characters and the reader. ***1/2

>37 sibylline: Moving Braiding Sweetgrass up the TBR pile!

>39 Berly: Such a good book!

89. fantasy ****
A Brightness Long Ago Guy Gavriel Kay

Kay takes the reader back twenty-five years to just before (and up to) the moment that Sarantium falls (no spoiling here) following the lives of several people in Barantia (the not-Italy) then in the period of multiple city-states and small principalities, all constantly at war with one another. The characters: A young man (Danio), from rich Seressa, in his first post working for an advisor to a (nasty) Duke, a young woman (Adria) who has a need to take risks, a healer (Jelena) who listens with both head and heart . . . two mercenary captains, enemies, who work for the various principalities while also trying to protect their own small city-states and their families, but the portrait is of a place and a time where people are so caught up in their own needs and affairs that few are looking at the big picture and so succumb to the 'someone else will do it' (happens a lot on a smaller scale in my kitchen sink) and blind themselves to the determination of the Asharites to conquer Sarantium. Hardly anyone has gone to defend the city. Kay has become adept at moving in very close into the minds of his characters and then moving away and away so you can see the bigger picture. I do enjoy this one-step-sideways world Kay has created! ****

I meant to read *Brightness* this month, and then other books called louder. I started it, and your review calls me back. I now have 3 Kays to read, your Sarantium 2 and the second Chinese one. It's a happiness to have them at hand and a sadness not to be making time for them.

90. hist mys ****
A Murderous Relation Deanna Raybourn

Jack the Ripper is out there creating terror and havoc, and closer to home it appears someone in the royal family might be caught up. So Veronica and Stoker to the rescue. It's all totally ridiculous, but Raybourn knows how to keep your attention and to make you laugh. I'll say no more. Enjoyable, perfect sort of listen for me. ****

>42 LizzieD: I loved the step-to-one side Chinese set! Actually, I liked or loved all Kay except that first Fionavar series.

Agreed! I read only the first Fionavar and have ducked the rest.

Just because.

You got me started with Deanna Rayburn in the lady Julia Grey books--my library has the Veronica Speedwell books so I've just put the first on hold!

>46 ronincats: I love it!!!!!!!
>47 ronincats: I am sure you will enjoy them -- I am listening and the reader has a very imperious voice, perfect for who Veronica is. I don't know the Lady Julia Grey's but I am glad they exist!

No, you did the Anna Dean books, didn't you? I will have to try to think who started me on the Lady Julia Grey books by Rayburn.

>17 sibylline: So the library's copy became available of A Curious Beginning and I picked it up this afternoon. Got home a little after 4 and had it finished by 8:30, all 339 pages of it. Pulled me right in and kept me there! What a lot of fun, and now I have to go put the next ones on hold. Don't think I could have listened to it though.

Ah, Misti (foggidawn) recommended the Lady Julia Grey series.

Your review of A Memory Called Empire reminds me that I really should get to the sequel soon. Hope you have a great weekend, Lucy!

>50 ronincats: So glad you enjoyed it! I'm nearing the 'end' -- (no idea if that is the end of the series or all she's written) -- and so glad to know she has written other series! Just perfect for when I am driving around!

Great book bullets here... so glad I popped by. Reminded me to request A Curious Beginning and look up the Julia Grey series on our library catalogue.

91. fantasy ****1/2
All the Seas of the World Guy Gavriel Kay

Kay returns to same sideway world to ours in the same period only a few years after Sarantium has fallen and while some of the same characters return most are new. Nadia, a former slave, a Batiaran captured in an Asharite raid as a 12-13yr old, now is a partner with a share in a merchant ship (not quite corsair, but up to dubious deals) anddeveloping a tentative friendship with said partner, Rafel ben Naten. The two have been hired to assassinate the Khalif of a city on the southern coast of this not-Mediterranean sea. Things do and don't go according to plan and this one act sets in motion many many reactions and changes throughout the entire region-- all the way to far Sarantium, in fact. Meanwhile Lenia must heal herself and find a way to have a future. As with the previous book, reviewed above, Kay has become adept at pulling focus way out and close in to at more than just the lives of main characters. Folco is back as is Antenami Sardi, and other delights. ****1/2

92. natural history, memoir
The Oak Papers James Canton almost **** and a half.

There were times, while reading The Oak Papers when I thought Canton was not giving me enough information either about the oaks he was visiting or about himself. Was this simplicity just too simplistic? However, in the end, I think Canton wrote exactly and only as he was able to write about his quest. From the start he makes it clear that home life was not going well and although he never explains more deeply the issues that drove him to seek solace from the 800-year old oak at a nearby small country estate (grounds open to the public) you can see Canton gradually shift into a more confident and hopeful state of being. This is a humble book, genuine and straightforward. You won't end up with a lot of information about oak trees, but you will end up having traveled with Canton through a very personal quest to allow himself to explore having a healing relationship with a life form extremely different from the human. **** and a bit.

(revised 9.28)

>54 sibylline: His talent is tapestry-weaving, isn't it. Threads you though might drop are suddenly back! I enjoyed Tigana on second reading. The first happened when I was not in the right head-space for it, but it stayed in my mind...like Kay books do, as you're aware.

>56 richardderus: You have it exactly! I am looking forward to rereading Tigana.

93. psychology bipolar *****
An Unquiet Mind Kay Redfield Jamison

Years ago my mother took me to a series of talks at The U of Penn -- about depression and connected maladies. I heard Bill Styron talk about his terrifying bout with depression (about which he wrote in Darkness Visible) and also Kay Redfield Jamison whose book, An Unquiet Mind had just recently come out. Previous to this, Jamison, a clinical psychologist, had kept her own bipolar illness to herself and where necessary, friends and colleagues. (She prefers the term manic-depressive as more accurately descriptive.) The thumbnail takeaways are 1) If you are bipolar and lithium works for you, TAKE IT faithfully. 2) ALSO don't neglect to have a good therapist and psychiatrist who know your story 3) forgive yourself for the bad times and move on. 4) be open to loving and being loved. Jamison explores one of the key bipolar dilemmas--a terrifying number of those who have been diagnosed, who have had horrendous and repeated episodes of mania and depression, refuse to take lithium or quit, again and again once they feel better. The reasons are mainly cultural and she explores those. She also describes the allure and the terror of mania and the combined terror and utter tedium of depression, the former (the allure part) of which also made taking lithium regularly difficult to bear. We all know people who are bipolar, as it is surprisingly common, still kept hidden by individuals and families more afraid of the disruption of others knowing than of the private suffering, and so very very much the hidden cause behind many suicides and destroyed relationships. Jamison has devoted herself to bringing this topic into the open and to taking the cultural onus from being a sufferer down a few pegs. With time and experience too, she has been able to reduce her dose of lithium to one where her mind works more quickly, although she has had to work at staying on an even keel. (This took decades and dedication.)
Brava! *****

>58 sibylline: Sounds like a powerful book, Lucy.

94. ♬ hist mys ****
An Unexpected Peril Deanna Raybourn

Alas, when you are a feisty and independent person (no gender implied) maintaining a steady relationship the course, no matter how much you love the other, will not be easy. I don't mean straying, just the inevitable clashes and problems that arise (such as someone you thought had died turning up quite alive and up to mischief posing a serious problem for Veronica and Stoker) tend to be more dramatic, harder to resolve for both parties. Can't say more. One of the things about these mysteries I appreciate is how rarely there is a gruesome death involved (although they lurk in the background) still, some like this one, circle most around issues of personality and, naturally, a gigantic missing diamond. And a second alas is that I have caught up with this series and will now, from here on out, have to wait and wait. ****

Early October:


Currently Reading in October
♬

reread A Shadow in Summer Daniel Abraham fantasy
new Britain B.C. Francis Pryor prehistory british
new This Is Happiness Niall Williams contemp
♬ The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (Flavia 8) Alan Bradley mys

96. Lib The Very Best of Kate Elliott Kate Elliott fantasy ***
97. new (BBG) The Map of Knowledge Violet Moller history ****
98. ♬ When Blood Lies C.S. Harris hist mys ****
99. new A Desolation Called Peace Arkady Martine sf sp/op
100. new (BBG) Still Life Sarah Winman fic



Round-up:

>61 sibylline: Kate Elliott is one of my more recent favorites. I'll be looking for that one.

96. fantasy ss ***
The Very Best of Kate Elliott Kate Elliott

Kate Elliott has become one of my favourite fantasy writers, however, this collection of short stories, with one or two exceptions, feels more like a mix between the 'maybe I'm onto something' or the 'I have to write at least ten pages of something a day' or the reject drawer.
The one I liked best continued the story (Crossroads of Mai, the young woman that the Qi King wants desperately, kidnapped etc. but ultimately freed (but still wants her back). The essays were better, especially the first one 'The Omniscient Breast' which is probably from a talk at some sf/fcon or other. The points in the other two were also good, but not things I hadn't quite thought about from that particular angle. Essay Spoiler (is that possible?): that unconsciously/unknowingly many writers shift into the omniscient voice, as opposed to first or third which they use the rest of the time, when describing sexual attributes--mostly--of women. Take the moment to wrap your head around this and you will notice it from now on. The third essay also brings up a similar point re worldbuilding. Publishers inflict this 'let's get another book out while you are so popular' on authors and it does them no favors. ***

>63 sibylline: Publishers inflict this 'let's get another book out while you are so popular' on authors and it does them no favors..
That is so true. I felt this happened to Elly Griffiths and to some extent, Martin Walker having now largely left off reading those series.

>63 sibylline: ...that unconsciously/unknowingly many writers shift into the omniscient voice, as opposed to first or third which they use the rest of the time, when describing sexual attributes--mostly--of women.

Does Elliott posit an underlying meaning for this observed behavior? I'm not sure I'd ever notice it, being as I skip such passages, so I don't know what would be gained by doing so.

>63 sibylline: I found I had already read this one. I still want more stories in the Crossroads/Tales of Rhui series.

97. history medieval ****
The Map of Knowledge Violet Moller

A sweeping survey of where, how and why the centers of knowledge continually migrated from city to city during the 1000 years after the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance to places as far apart as Toledo and Baghdad. Each time a city 'fell' or, in the case of Spain, evicted whole groups of people, much knowledge was lost, although some were saved but removed to a new 'safer' city. The main point is that the role the Islamic Empire played in this dance of preservation has been understated in our Western culture. ****

Read for my local bookgroup.

Hi Lucy!

Thank you for visiting my thread yesterday.

>29 sibylline: the human obsession with 'purpose' in a carefully oblique and unthreatening way (firmly pointing out that the rest of the universe does not have this problem) Ego is what gets us into trouble, IMO. I’m not at all adverse to the idea that there’s not much more to life than existing to meet the goals of physical safety, physical comfort, food/water security, bonding.

>37 sibylline: I’d resisted even reading LT comments about Braiding Sweetgrass, but you got me with even your preliminary comments. I’ve just ordered a trade paperback copy.

>67 sibylline: OOoooooOOOOooOOOooooo I like the sound of that one! Great that you enjoyed it.

>67 sibylline: Sounds really interesting. I'll look for it.

So I read on Karen-Marie's (?) thread that you are attempting a new plan of thread-reading. Oh am I in need of one of those! If you are only reading one person a day, how many do you find you can keep up with? I always choose too many to star and then don't get to them (yours, for instance. So sorry.) The new year is coming up, and when Dr. N gets us set up, I need a new strategy myself.

>29 sibylline: >68 karenmarie: I preferred Psalm's relaxation with regard to purpose to Prayer's angst over it.

Hello and welcome, my visitors! (Dia duit agus tá failte romhat, in my terrible Irish).

>68 karenmarie: These two short novels by Becky Chambers are little gems.
I would have resisted Braiding Sweetgrass if not for my daughter. I think it's one of those books that will have an effect.
>69 richardderus: I think you will like this one a lot.
>70 ffortsa: Not sure if this idea will work, just doing one person a day, but we shall see!
I used to visit practically everyone, then I dropped to about . . . 50 starred. Now I have probably 20 or 25 to which I will add or subtract . . I do look at those threads, checking that folks (and pets) are OK but really mostly focus on comments about books.
>71 quondame: Lovely, aren't they?

98. ♬ hist mys *****
When Blood Lies C.A. Harris

Can't say much of anything without spoiling, but this latest is gripping from start to finish. Devlin and Hero are in Paris on Devlin's quest for his mother. Napoleon is plotting his return from Elba, the nasty Duchesse d'Angouleme, Marie Therese (surviving child of Louis and Marie) is un-endearing the French populace to the Bourbons, both of H and D's fathers are also in Paris for diplomatic reasons. A heart-breaking murder is committed and Devlin vows to solve it. As with all good historical mysteries, this one sent me to look up stuff up from details of Napoleon's exit from Elba (did Wellington's gold coins that he gave Napoleon for selling him his hotel de ville to house the new British embassy really pay for the ships that helped Boney escape from Elba???) to the medallion that supposedly was Charlemagne's. Lots here is made up but lots isn't. To top it off -- a new clue is offered as to who is really Devlin's father! A doozy that also sent me into the reference section of the internet and I have a feeling this portrait might offer insight into what Devlin looks like, I won't spoil by telling you who this is! Just give the dude the topaz eyes:

>73 sibylline: I am waaay behind you in the Sebastian St Cyr series, Lucy, having read just 6 books so far. But I find them immensely enjoyable. I skipped past your review but couldn't help noticing you called this one "gripping" which is really saying something, especially for book #17.

>73 sibylline:, >74 lauralkeet: CS Harris is an amazing author isn't she?
I read When Blood Lies (4* for me) last May.... Stayed up late two nights in a row because I couldn't put it down until about 2 in the morning each time. Nothing especially grisly but lots of twists and turns to keep me reading "just one more chapter..."

I liked Hero's involvement the best. I find her a very endearing character.
But the series is amazing, being the only one I've ever stuck with trough thick and thin. Other series I've enjoyed (lsuch as the Ruth Galloway mysteries) were enjoyable only to a point and then less engaging as time went on. Very few long series stay fresh in the way Harris achieves.

>75 SandyAMcPherson: I completely concur! (And nice to hear from you!)

99. sp/op ****1/2
A Desolation Called Peace Arkady Martine

The second in this 'Duology' in which the long-term scheme of one of the Stationer leaders to pull the attention of the Empire to a battle that will leave Lesl Station off their radar screen seem to be coming to fruition; for them nothing would be worse than being absorbed into the Empire. The only problem is the enemy is so dangerous that everyone is at risk. The Lesl Ambassador Mahit Dzmare, who also contains the wisdom of her predecessor in a tiny implant, loves the Empire and in particular another citizen of the Empire, Three Seagrass, . . . and wouldn't you know that citizen, now promoted, gets the opportunity to offer herself and Mahit as the potential linguist/diplomats to talk with the aliens. A new raft of characters, Nine Hibiscus, the 'yaotlek' (Admiral Supreme) of the Empire's forces is a wonder as is her second-in-command Twenty Cicada. Eight Antidote, the heir to the Empire plays a fine role in this too -- reminding me a little bit of young Cajeiri in C.J. Cherryh's series Foreigner. ****1/2

100!!!!!
contemp(ish) fic ****1/2
Still Life Sarah Winman

A fine novel and have your hankies handy. Not bad sad, just life-is- like-that moments here and there. Best to say it is a 20th century novel, ranging from the beginning to well past the middle, following the lives of a group of (mostly) English people (Londoners) whose lives are already entwined from the neighborhood they grew up or landed in, but reaching out to Italy, in particular, Florence. Get your Baedeker handy, esp the 1899 edition. Seriously, be ready to look up a lot of paintings and sculptures to refresh your memory. The relationship of Brits to Italy and Florence in particular is, thanks to a host of great writers, of almost irresistible interest. To not be affected by the beauty, warmth, sensuality, good food . . . requires locking yourself up in an iron maiden. The two most prominent characters around whom the others swirl are Ulysses Temper, a soldier in ww2, and Evelyn Skinner, art historian. And maybe the parrot. Vivid characters, hard not to get very involved with. The thematic lean of the book is also strong: the necessity for beauty in our lives, for appreciating the moment you are in, for taking the risk of loving others. E.M. Forster makes a cameo appearance to just make sure you get the point. All around a great read. Not a five for a couple of reasons I feel sort of prickly about. One: Dreadful title. Two: Maybe too many intertwinings and non-coincidences followed by coincidences? Three: Captain Darnley -- such a focal point but such an absence. It's hard to care that Ulysses was so devastated by his death, because we don't really know what we're missing, an inkling maybe, but no more. This is a Bridgeside Book Group read for this month. Good pick! ****1/2

Perfect read for Book 100!

>78 sibylline: YAY!!

Don't you love stories about Chiantishire? English folk in Italy just tickle something deep inside me.

Congratulations, Lucy, and an even better November's reads.

November
Sun Dawg:

Cold up there, but we've barely had a frost down here.

Reading in November
♬

The City-State of Boston Mark Peterson history
new This Is Happiness Niall Williams contemp
♬ The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (Flavia 8) Alan Bradley mys

105. reread A Shadow in Summer Daniel Abraham fantasy *****
106. reread A Betrayal in Winter Daniel Abraham fantasy *****
107. new Britain B.C. Francis Pryor prehistory british *****
108. reread An Autumn War Daniel Abraham fantasy *****
109. reread The Price of Spring Daniel Abraham fantasy *****
110. loan Fenwomen Mary Chamberlain sociology england

105. fantasy *****
A Shadow in Summer Daniel Abraham

A reread, the whole of The Long Price Quartet is in my top ten fantasy series, a textured complex and convincing world, great characters, sturdy plot, and strange and gripping premise, that in the country of the Khaiem (a faint echo of an earlier, now destroyed Empire to the south) 'poets' can, with words, embody or bind the essence of a concept in a facsimile of a human being. These, the andat, talk and think and look like humans, but they don't breathe or have bodily functions of any kind . . . and they don't want to be enslaved to do the will of whoever summoned them. Otah-Machi, a younger son of one of the great lords of the realm, refused his vocation as a poet, and has roamed free since leaving the school. While his father is alive and healthy he is safe enough, but all the sons of a dying lord turn to kill one another and the last man standing is the new lord. Nasty. Outside the Khaiem there are other forces eager to conquer take the astounding wealth of this country (courtesty of the andat) for their own. This first book takes place mostly in Saraykhet, a southern city of the Khaiem, dependent on their andat "Seedless" to assist them in the cotton trade. (No carding or removal of seeds necessary as he can make it happen instantly.) Otah gets caught up in a plot to kill Seedless and everything shifts. Totally wonderful this second time around. Long enough interval to forget the littler details. *****

106. fantasy ****1/2
A Betrayal in Winter Daniel Abraham

(This is what I wrote last time I read the Quartet). Close to perfect fantasy -- good characters, great premise, fully realized setting. Wow!

107. archaeology britain *****
Britain B.C. Francis Pryor

The first time I encountered Pryor was when he appeared on Time Team (of which I am an unashamed fangirl) so full of enthusiasm and ideas and energy about his work that the television practically shorted. To my delight he writes as he talks, I have rarely encountered a person more able to explain niggly details of archaeology as well as ponder the big picture in way that resonates with profound and always open-minded thinking. This is a person who, literally and figuratively, will always pick up a rock, no matter how sure he might be of what it signifies, and turn it over and over examining every angle. He begins with the Neolithic (post glacial period, Doggerland still connecting Europe to Great Britain) and so lots more coastal areas, thoroughly drowned now and moves up the centuries and millenia into the 'proto-historic' period of the Roman occupation (about the ultimate value of which for British cultural development he is skeptical, except maybe for drains), stopping there. Pryor's thesis is that a separate culture developed for thousands of years that had far less tendencies to tilt vertically with the elite at the top and a greater respect for individual freedoms and communal decision-making. (Albeit he makes it clear that the Euro was and still is a better idea than the pound.) Along the way he shows what changes from the Neolithic to the Bronze and Iron Ages, and more importantly what does not change, what lasts and lasts, even through the Roman era -- certain ritual customs (tossing votive objects in rivers and lakes), living in round houses in communities that show little to no sign of having a 'big man' in charge or any particular hierarchy whatsoever, fairness in allocation of arable land (everybody in a community appeared to get a bit of wet, a bit of very good for crops, a bit of higher land for grazing). Too, there is little evidence of fighting amongst each other, indeed, boundaries are made sacred in all areas of life, between individuals, communities, the living and the dead. Arts and artifice (as in making weapons, tools) were excellent and often sublimely good, clothing was brightly dyed and well-woven. The Romans had to make up reasons to trash the British, so they cooked up the savage story, just as 'we' folk from Europe did to the native people here, and the English did to Ireland, India etcetera. (Pryor admits he does find it hard to fathom why the British so totally swallowed the Romans schtick.) Oh well, I'm babbling and giving the wrong impression because a huge amount of the book is about specific discoveries, the neolithic chambers, the henges, the hill forts, and lake houses, the brochs and burial practices, the field systems and the treasure, the glorious finds! For me this was a ten-pages-a-night read so I feel a little bereft! *****

>83 sibylline: I was 88% sold on the book, and now you've completed the deal with your review. Thank you, Lucy. *sigh* I seem to be accumulating tomes at quantum speed and reading them on foot, strolling. Maybe I can get it and read five pages a night.....

>83 sibylline: Oh, that's a major book bullet! Thanks!

108. fantasy *****
An Autumn War Daniel Abraham

A reread of one of my 'top ten' (a joke, there are more than ten) fantasies. The premise, that the people of the Khaiem have found a way to bound an idea in material form, the andat, but not only form but capability of causing change in the manner appropriate to its form. e.g. Stone-Made-Soft can cause stone to be malleable (and then back again) and so on. The Khaiem are the richest and most powerful country in this world, and they are a bare shadow of the former 'Empire' that destroyed itself (yes, via the 'andat'). Otah Machi is faced with preserving his people against the Galt, and in particular Balasar Gice, their military leader, whose ambition is to destroy the andat and the ability to create them, once and for all. In this third volume, the two countries duke it out and it is as gripping the second time around as the first. The two countries are so different and Abraham has the reader sympathetic to both, much tension. *****

>73 sibylline: Hi Lucy,
I liked this development in the St. Cyr mystery series. Excellent review. I rated it 4*'s and gave a very brief review so as not to include any spoilers (not that you did, either).

CS Harris has become my "standard" for excellence in plotting 19th-century narratives. Largely, she never puts a foot wrong in the behaviour and settings for the characters. I am particularly impressed that she keeps the continuing characters moving forward in their lives so that one feels the sense of time passing and that the new twists of investigations are not stale.

Thus ~ the Lady Julia Grey series, a BB from one of your much earlier threads: I awarded only 3*'s, once I had a good think about my impressions. It was compelling to finish, I didn't have a clue who the murderer was, but overall, meh. I guess I am done with Raybourn as an author because I wasn't patient plowing through the Veronica Speedwell series either. Not to imply criticism for those readers who love Raybourn's oeuvre.

>78 sibylline: !! Wow. Congratulations I'm at about 73 so far. Have read a lot of 3*- and less books, but several stellar ones too. So making progress and spending more time on my artwork, which has been satisfying.

>83 sibylline: a BB for me!

I'm beginning to realize that I do, in fact, miss having my own talk thread so that I can blab away like this without littering up someone else's talk thread. 🙄 If I feel I can brave the idea in 2023, I'll start one early in the new year.

>86 sibylline: I liked the inventiveness of that series.

>87 SandyAMcPherson: Sandy, I'd love to see you with your own thread next year!

>88 quondame: Susan, thank you. That is a very nice comment.

>83 sibylline: Hi (again) Lucy. Looks like my PL doesn't have that title. Have you read other titles by Francis Pryor that are as interesting? I'm attracted by the archaeology and Pryor's apparently interleaving modern concepts into old historical scenarios. You mention he talks about the Euro and the Pound sterling in the middle of a Neolithic to Bronze age commentary.

>87 SandyAMcPherson: C.S. Harris works hard to provide an historical framework, no question, and she does it well. Plus, the characters are just plain great! Raybourn is tilted toward the 'entertainment' side of the equation so there are some silly moments, no question. Somehow, as I have said, that listening to these is a different thing, and I have a different purpose too, keeping me entertained while driving, but not rigid with tension or feeling stressed -- the humourous aspect of the Raybourn ouevre works, not sure if I could read them as print books including the e-book.

As for Francis -- they can't get it for you on Interlibrary Loan? Well, if they can't then you can watch him on YouTube -- He has a Britain B.C. series that is available there, greatly shortened and simplified, but totally worth it. He does an A.D. one too.

The Euro comment was toward the end when he is talking about his view about the enduring British identity and that the concern that being part of the EU and using Euros will somehow erode that is basically absurd and in our current world, probably self-defeating. Certainly if the next time Scotland leaves. And I hear, now and then, of rumblings in Northern Ireland where many feel Ireland proper is now far better off than they are. Ironic, that. Plus the complications. But I am fairly ignorant of the whole mess.

Pryor has written some other books, including some mysteries that involve archaeology, but I haven't read any of them (yet).

>88 quondame: Yes, indeed Susan -- I was kind of staggered by it the first time around. This time I am more aware of the costs, the price, everyone pays for misdeeds, intentional or not.

109. fantasy *****
The Price of Spring Daniel Abraham Book 4 Long Price Quartet

That this was Abraham's first long work is impressive -- a big story, that of a life of one extraordinary man and the people around him -- extraordinary for his lack of interest in power, but his willingness to step up to the plate, every time recognizing (reluctantly) that somehow, as hard as it is for him to believe, he is more fit to lead than anyone else. The question remains: What to do about these andat? These creations of metaphor and idea made manifest? Are they truly too dangerous to use? This last book is a tour de force as the Khaiem and the Galts hunt down a rogue poet and try to save not just the empire, but the whole world. Unlikely that I will read this a third time, so I am a little bereft, once again.*****

Hi Lucy, simply popping by to wish you a satisfying long weekend of Thanksgiving.
I'm about to choose my next book to read... I DNF'd the one I thought I'd read next ~ I wanted this next book to be 'special' as it is #75!
Talk about struggling to reach #75 before year end! Usually I have blasted past #100 by now. However, I have enjoyed a great deal more time in my studio learning new artwork techniques, so no complaints here.

>92 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks so much for the Thanksgiving wishes -- our daughter is home now for a month and that makes it super special. Lots of cooking ahead of me. Pies today, bird tomorrow. Lots of time listening to silly books while I cook. I don't list the silliest ones, and I question that, but can't help myself, trying to make my standards look higher than they are. I intend to write about that one of these days on my erstwhile (as in infrequent) Goodreads (fie!) blog.

I think time in your art studio sounds excellent. I go through times when music matters more than reading and almost more than writing and I think it does me good! It's so much more interactive or something. kinetic?

Hi Lucy. Nice to hear that LD is home for a bit. Do I remember correctly that she is living somewhere in the "west" now? Enjoy your "silly" books and have a wonderful holiday!

A whole month with the LD?! Lucky you! Happy Thanksgiving, Lucy.

Happiest of Happy Thanksgivings to you and your family, dear Lucy! I'm pretty sure that family, friends, books, and music top your list! I'm thankful to fall in the second category.

Thank you as always for books, thank you for this group and thanks for you. Have a lovely day, Lucy.

110. sociology england, fens, women
Fenwomen Mary Chamberlain

A friend handed me Fenwomen saying, "I thought you might be interested." Well, sort of? I doubt I would have picked up the book on my own, but I don't regret reading it. There are three (maybe more?) layers to my interest -- one is to do with the content, the actual study of the women of a village in the fens of East Anglia, the second is the timing--in the seventies Women's studies were new and exciting, ground-breaking even but also critical for capturing information soon to be lost. The third interest is looking at the book fifty years into women's studies. So, to the first: for Chamberlain to successfully coax the women of Gislea (which I could not find on a map) to talk to her was a remarkable achievement and not without cost, as it turned out as some smart-aleck reporter/reviewer (I'd like to use a harsher word) put in a newspaper header: "Villagers Reveal all their Love Secrets" which made the villagers feel betrayed and Chamberlain to feel terrible. The book got the wrong attention. (By the way there are no love secrets whatsoever.) Second, Chamberlain's timing was, as with collectors of folk tales and music, critical. In the seventies there were many women still living who remembered the 'old ways' vividly, a few born in the previous century. A few too, still lived more or less as they always had in 'clunch' cottages (stone built, on the ground, simple) with no indoor plumbing although I think, by then, all had electric. And the younger women are living recognizably in 'our' contemporary world, a rural environment but nonetheless. So there is a full view, as these older women lived much as women had for generations. Many of these older women, dependent on tiny pensions from their husbands and too old to cope with newfangled stuff, were lonely and living in relative poverty, but without the cohesion of an isolated village community (which has its goods and bads) to support them. Lastly, I have tried to reflect on what, if anything, the fifty years of inquiry into the everyday lives and reflections of women has done to change perceptions and to improve understanding. Is it certainly? Or only maybe? Are things truly better? Much is gained for women with roads and cars and electric and so on, but to me, isolation is still a factor for women, especially older ones, and the turmoil of child-raising, the guilt and the necessities are still mostly burdening the women. To me, the whole edifice of women's lives is still precarious depending more on a smoothly running economy and law than on men actually believing women should be regarded, treated, respected as they expect for themselves. Sorry to be so negative, but there you have it. I'm not reviewing the book, but sharing my own thoughts. The book itself was thought-provoking though I don't think anyone needs to run out and find it unless your field or primary interest is women's studies.****

>98 sibylline: I'm afraid that so much that has occurred in this last decade has only increased my doubts of women making any real gain in the opinion of the majority of men. Which is to say that I doubt many more men see women as persons equal to themselves than did in 1990. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't place much trust in that hope.

Salutations to you, Lucy, and a smooch for Miss Po.

Do I dare ask how the Niall Williams novel is progressing??

I'm going to have to start the St. Cyr novels next year, aren't I?

>100 Chatterbox: History of the Rain was so good I could hardly bear it -- had to start all over again at the end. This is proving the same. I also have a delicious audio version. I delayed starting it due to this and that and just wanting to read the book at the right moment, but realized, finally that was silly.

You haven't read St. Cyr. Sapristi! Incroyable! You lucky lady!

Thanks so much for stopping by. -- I must visit you and check out how settling into the new apartment has been and the state cats and books and everything else.

Reading in December

♬

new The Hands of the Emperor Victoria Goddard fantasy
new Zama Antonio di Benedetto contemp lit
new A Guide Through Finnegans Wake Edmund Epstein
new Finnegan's Wake James Joyce fiction irish*

111. new This Is Happiness Niall Williams contemp *****!!!!!
112. new The City-State of Boston Mark Peterson history ****
113. new Let Me Tell You Shirley Jackson SS, essays ***1/2
114. new Deathless Gods (Kencyrath 7) P.C. Hodgell fantasy ****
115. new Writ in Stone Cora Harrison mys irish
116. new To Be Taught, If Fortunate Becky Chambers sf
117. new BBG* The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair With Nature J. Drew Lanham nature

DNF ✔ Shades of Grey Jasper Fforde dystopic, fantasy
DNF ✔ Lucy's Book Club for the Lost and Found Emma Davies chicklit



*Bridgeside Book Group
* Reading with non-LT group 14p per week. Year long project. Began on Bloomsday!

111. contemp fic, fiction irish *****!!!!!!! Best novel of 2022 for me
This is Happiness Niall Williams

Setting aside my extreme appreciation of most things Irish: literature, music, language, landscape, culture, please believe me that you do not want to miss Niall Williams's This is Happiness. Niall Williams's This is Happiness offers irresistible story-telling.

It is 1958, electricity is coming to ever-rainy Faha in County Clare, in the west of Ireland. Noe Crowe is rusticating at his grandparents’ house having found his vocation for the priesthood faltering. Just before the electric men arrive, the rain stops and along comes Christy, to stay as a lodger as the Crowes senior have the rare telephone. He is one of the men involved in electrification but Noe immediately intuits that Christy is not only different but here on a mission. Gradually Christy's secret and his purpose emerge and intertwine with Noe's own efforts to figure himself out at least enough to know what direction to move in with his life. The novel is so rewarding I've said enough. Read it.

A sub-theme in the novel is music: As Noe begins to play the fiddle, Christy and Noe bicycle around the region in the hopes of happening upon Junior Crehan playing at a session or dance. If you do read the novel, be sure to go to your browser and look up Junior Crehan, one of County Clare's most wonderful composers and fiddlers of the last century and be sure also to go listen on youtube or wherever to a bit of his music, and listen to him talk about his life. Look up too, the Irish words that pop up here and there in the text.

At one moment, the narrator, Noe (pronounced No, 'short' for Noel--one of countless sly language moments as the Irish language itself contains no word for 'No' -- or 'Yes' for that matter) watches his grandfather standing quietly for hours in his upper field on the small family farm in the village of Faha in Clare, just . . . doing what looks like nothing, just looking about. Subtly but forcefully Williams quietly demonstrates as well what having electricity, that mysterious and now essential enabler of how we live now, will change everything: what will be gained and what will be lost.

The novel is so rich in detail, in humor, so emotionally engaging, so rewarding I've said enough. Read it. *****

Also don't miss History of the Rain which was a best book for me a few years back.

112. history us, history new england, history boston
The City State of Boston Mark Peterson

The premise is that in the wake of the Civil War, the 'new' historians of that era, Parkman et al, smoothed over the reality of the earlier incarnation of Boston as an independent entity, essentially a a city-state, ruled by no one but themselves. The 'end' was begun when the New England states made their Faustian bargain with the Southern states in order to have the might and means to oust British rule. He argues that Boston and New England were not able at that time, to withstand the power of the southern states and the Constitution as first written by allowing slavery and the bizarre and fiendish three-fifths rule which gave the south a population advantage that gave them more power in Congress than the non-slave states.

Peterson examines this earlier independent incarnation of the City that as had roots reaching into the very first moment that the ships bearing the Puritans who would found Boston in 1630-- the Massachusetts Bay Company (not the Plymouth/Mayflower group) dropped anchor. Composed of Puritans, yes, but largely led by hard-headed practical men of the merchant and yeoman class, they had come far better prepared to survive the first hard years and chose the (almost) island they named Boston as their base.

From the beginning these colonists looked across the wide expanse of the Atlantic and inwardly calculated that they could, pretty much, talk nice, then do as they pleased. They also, in order to maintain that independence, would fend for themselves, not asking for help even when times were hard and even though they were oriented economically toward England and Europe (not having a population here to buy their products!).

Peterson builds on this idea, demonstrating the many ways, practical and intellectual, that Boston developed over nearly two hundred and fifty years, in some fundamental way never fully integrating into the United States until after the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery. The period leading up to the Civil War shows a Boston and surround, wracked by the tensions that the conflicting deeply embedded ideas of individual human value and liberty versus the great material wealth and power they had accrued through industrialization (itself dependent on the cotton growing in the south), the influx of Irish famine refugees and the moral agonies of obeying of the federally enacted Fugitive Slave Act.

This is a worthwhile read and a corrective for those interested in US history, especially of New England. ****1/2

113. ss, essays ***1/2
Let Me Tell You Shirley Jackson

Lovingly restored and edited by two of Jackson's children, the collection is a little uneven, I guess you might say. The short stories are not ones that have aged so well--not the emotional piece but the settings: neighboring couples playing bridge, children roaming free. Particularly the view of propriety, family, husbands and wives sticking to their roles in the middle of the last century seem remote almost to absurdity now. The humorous essays on dealing with children and a big house are not dated until they overlap with the above restrictions. But, say, the essay on the demise of her cooking fork and her quest for a new (old) one was sheer joy as were several others of that kind. The small collection of essays and lectures on writing at the very end, particularly the one on using symbol to embed themes and strengthen the reader's connection with characters was brilliant. Photocopying that one to have around in my writing room. Totally worth it for any Jackson fans, otherwise? Also the book itself, a hardcover that I think I was given for Christmas, is a beautiful edition, complete with many line drawing by Jackson and with an attached red ribbon bookmark. ***1/2

114. fantasy ****1/2
Deathless Gods P.C. Hodgell

One friend wrote me recently that she is terrified that Hodgell won't finish the series and I agree.

Oops, more later, have to go do things.

>106 sibylline: That just popped to the top of my holds list. I've forgotten so much that I don't think an unfinished series would stress me too much - and I'm as likely to exit before the series is complete as the author.

DNF ✔ Shades of Grey Jasper Fforde dystopic, fantasy

I loved the Nursery series, liked the Thursday Next series well enough, but this one just didn't grab me at all. Couldn't bring myself to care.


DNF ✔ Lucy's Book Club for the Lost and Found Emma Davies chicklit

I acquired this from someone or other because my name is Lucy -- it has rattled about on my tbr shelves since then. This time of year I like to pick out some books I have a feeling I am not ever choosing because I know they won't work out, making space for the inevitable flood of Christmas books. Alas. I really do like the title.

Happy Christmas from my Christmas gnome!

Happy Holidays, Lucy!

Hoping your Yule book haul is positively Icelandic, Lucy.

>111 richardderus: Or maybe even Irish?
Happy and relaxing day tomorrow, Lucy. Almost the time there for you in your zone.

>109 SandDune: -- Nollaig Shona Duit in return!

>110 quondame: Yes! It is like that indeed. Books are the best part.

>111 richardderus: Less than usual, although not really. My new thing is to buy a raft of books (mostly fantasy and sf) that I know we all three want to read and give to "Everyone". I hope you had a fine day and some good grub!

>112 SandyAMcPherson: Thank you, Sandy.

Malaysia's branch of the 75er's wishes you and yours a happy holiday season.

115. mys hist ireland
Writ in Stone Cora Harrison

Mara and King Turlough are to marry but . . . Turlough's cousin is murdered, only it looks as though Turlough was the intended victim. They are staying at an abbey to have the ceremony in a grander setting, but the abbott is not pleased to have them and doesn't want to perform the ceremony . . . lots to unravel. I love these! ****

>116 sibylline: I added this series to my 2023 WL
My 2022 WL is a bit overwhelming and I should cull some titles but didn't want to miss this one or the series in fact when you move to your 2023 thread.
I have one Cora Harrison requested so that I can start at the beginning. It's taking forever (put the hold in on Nov 28), so must be at a remote branch library.
I made it to 85 for my books read this year, so I'm doing okay for finding time to read.

Hi Lucy!

It's line in the sand and onward to next year's threads, I'm afraid. One of my new year’s resolutions is to be a better LT friend.

116. sf ****1/2
To Be Taught, If Fortunate Becky Chambers

International, non-political effort to continue space exploration, send four astronauts out a century or so from now to visit planets in the habitable zone 'within reach'. (Somaforming -- sleep in which the body is almost shut down makes this possible.) They visit four very different planets but then . . . It's not the usual lighthearted Becky Chambers, more serious, but I didn't have a problem with that. As thoughtful as ever. ****1/2

I am guessing this is my final read of the year unless I finish The Home Place (which is possiblen yet unlikely).

>119 sibylline: My feeling of a "final read" was a bit angsty for me, Lucy. Do you feel satisfied? 116 books is really great. Especially since many of your titles were pretty darn heavy going.

Like Kanneman (Thinking Fast and Slow, which was tedious at times for me. I confess while it was so worth it to read, I still had to skim parts to stay engaged. This year, I feel I didn't read as much as I wanted to because I couldn't tolerate a lot of what I chose. DNF'd so many more books than usual, though listing only 10 of them in my DNF list on my profile, so I remember, "yeah don't go there again".

I'm plowing through Green Rider, because I really wanted to have it as a finished in 2022. That was a recommend from you, way back, maybe in spring? I found a copy early this month in our secondhand bookshop. I had borrowed the book but needed to return it to the PL when I was swamped with "Life Happens".

I wrote up some thoughts on GR in my review, but I need to polish the thoughts. I think the novel took me back to a comfortable place of my 1980's reading. I found it so difficult to pick good books so I did a lot of re-reading off my shelves and that brought forward a lot of new appreciation for those writers.

Blessings for the new year. Looking forward to seeing what your LT plans are in 2023.

117. memoir ****
The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature J. Drew Lanham

Lanham offers a window into growing up in western South Carolina in the sixties on a large property where the old and the new were entwined in a way that is no more, not for Lanham, not for anybody. Lanham writes wonderfully about his childhood -- especially his relationship with his grandmother, Mamatha, but also, very movingly about his Dad (and others, those just stand out). He explores both the dangers and pitfalls of any childhood and youth without flinching from the particulars of growing up Black in the south and about his growing love of nature in every aspect, although he has focussed his working life as a professor on forestry and birds. An entirely generous, observant and caring human being. ****

This really is the last book for this year! It's looking to me as if a goal of 125 for 2023 will make a lot more sense.

Happy New Year's Eve!

My thread for 2023 is here